Breaking the Limits

Jerzy Gorski, a heroin addict in seventies Poland, spends most of his life between the drug and treatment centres. In his forties he starts running and eventually becomes world champion at the double Ironman distance. Lukasz Palkowski directed. Jakub Gierszal plays Gorski. The story is real. Gorski's recovery coincides with the founding of the treatment community Monar in Poland, and the film shows the methods used inside it. The narrative runs on two clocks, cutting the years of addiction together with the preparation for the race, so recovery is not presented as a straight line. Palkowski had already had a major success in Poland with Gods, about a real heart surgeon, and continues the same template here. The race sequences convey physical exhaustion without exaggeration. Who it is for: viewers who like sports drama drawn from real lives. Who it is not for: anyone unprepared for scenes of addiction; the first half is hard.